5 Tips to Help You Avoid Exercising to Excess

Anyone who is trying to be healthy knows that exercise is essential. It keeps your metabolic rate high, which means your body will burn calories at a faster rate. Exercise is also good for your heart, as well as lowering your chances of developing diseases such as Type II Diabetes of high blood pressure. Exercise also helps to keep you limber.

Despite the fact that exercise is good for you, it is also possible to exercise too much. Too much exercise can cause problems to knees, ankles and other joints. It can also cause problems to your back. Exercise can also be highly addictive since there is such a release of endorphins. People who become addicted to exercise tend to exercise to the extreme and these are often the ones who end up with injuries.

When I first began exercising, I made the mistake of doing too much in the beginning. Having been sedentary, it would have been best for me to start off slowly and build my exercise routine gradually. Instead of starting off walking 15 or 20 minutes a day, I started off walking 3 miles every single day. As a result, my feet and ankles began hurting to the point I had to stop exercising completely. The pain was too great to continue without risking further injury. I also began to feel very burned out, and lost my desire to exercise at all.

In order to avoid excessive exercising, here are some tips that I have followed on my journey:

Include the 3 basic types of exercise in your program. These types are aerobic, resistance, and stretching. All 3 types are important because they work different muscle groups, and by incorporating all three types into your routine, you will have less chance of overworking any one particular group of muscles and causing injury to yourself.

Alternate days you do certain kinds of exercise. You should only do weight training every other day. Your muscles need time to relax in between workouts. It is very easy to strain your muscles if you do not take the time to rest in between. Also, when doing weight training, remember to start with a weight that allows you a bit of resistance, but not so much resistance that it causes you pain. Gradually add weight as you progress. You can also add repetitions gradually. Doing too much too soon is the biggest mistake that people make when it comes to exercise.

Make sure you warm up and cool down before and after exercising. This will help your muscles warm up before you do your more strenuous workout.

Take at least 1 day off from exercising each week. This will give your entire body a rest and help prevent injury and burn-out.

Keep your specific goal in mind when choosing an exercise program. This is important. If weight loss is your goal, aerobics and resistance training are important because aerobics burn calories and resistance training raises your metabolic rate. If your goal is to become more limber, you may want to incorporate more stretching into your exercise routine.

By following the above tips, you can ensure that you will not be exercising too much, and you will be on your way to a safe and successful exercise experience.